F1 24 is the game I logged more hours in than I expected to. It landed in a strange place in the series — not quite as polished as what came before it in some areas, genuinely excellent in others — but for wheel users on PC, it represented a meaningful step forward in how the cars actually behave under your hands.
The adaptive setup system was the thing people talked about at launch, and for good reason. Instead of sitting in setup menus for an hour trying to tune your car to a track you’ve never raced before, F1 24 lets you run a few laps with your preferred style and generates a setup tailored to how you actually drive. For sim racers who aren’t aerodynamics engineers, this is a genuinely useful tool. My T300RS has benefited from it at tracks where I historically struggled.
The tyre model in F1 24 was controversial at launch — tyres felt almost too aggressive in how quickly they degraded — but subsequent patches brought it to a more realistic place. I actually enjoyed the mid-race tyre conservation demands. Having to manage pace, not just maximise it, added a layer of decision-making that made the career seasons more engaging.
Career mode saw the return of the two-player career, which I’d been waiting for. Racing a friend through a full championship — with our own teams, our own contracts, our own rivalries — is exactly the kind of mode the F1 series needs more of. The AI driver ratings system, where real F1 drivers are rated and update based on their real season performance, was a nice touch.
Compared to F1 25, F1 24 feels like the prototype. But taken on its own terms, it’s a solid F1 game with good wheel support and a career mode that kept me busy through an entire season. If F1 25 has made you curious about the series, F1 24 is still worth playing to understand where it came from.